As of January 1, 2016 current students have until June 30, 2017 to complete their REBC designation through the American College.

Starting January 2017 NAHU will take new enrollees. REBC has newly revised requirements and for those of you that have already been earning NAHU certifications, you may be closer to earning your REBC designation, than you think.

Earning the Registered Employee Benefits Consultant® (REBC®) designation elevates your credibility as a professional. The field of employee benefits continues to evolve rapidly. A year does not go by without new government regulations, new or modified coverages, and new techniques for controlling benefit costs. To best serve their clients, professionals need to have a current understanding of the provisions, advantages, and limitations associated with each type of benefit or program as a method for meeting economic security. The designation program analyzes group benefits with respect to the ACA environment, contract provisions, marketing, underwriting, rate making, plan design, cost containment, and alternative funding methods. The largest portion of this course is devoted to group medical expense plans that are a major concern to employers, as well as to employees. The remainder of course requirements include electives on topics serving various markets based on a broker’s client needs.

Program Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, the student should be able to:

Describe the legal regulations and methodologies involved in benefits management

Describe the main components of the Affordable Care Act as they relate to group health benefits and ethically guide clients toward compliance with the legal regulations while minimizing tax penalties and related employment costs

Identify the main features of employer-provided benefits

Describe the COBRA election process, and explain the rules that apply to the determination and payment of the COBRA election process, and explain the rules that apply

Understand core ethical business practices

HIPAA Privacy and Security and ERISA regulations and requirements

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Required)

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Developed by experts in both PPACA/Healthcare Reform and employment law, this high-level 11 CE credit hour course will ensure that the student understands the key technical components of PPACA, and is better prepared to counsel his or clients on upcoming required health care changes and new options and requirements for health plans.

An overview of all regulations already issued will be presented, along with details on specific regulations issued to date. The student will learn what is needed to comply with the new law as well as how the market is likely to change over the next few years and will be able to develop client specific time lines and provide advice to guide clients in planning for the future.

Complete course instruction will be delivered through NAHU's Online Learning Institute (OLI) and followed by a final exam required to obtain certification and continuing education (CE) credits reported to your state Department of Insurance.

The PPACA certification course is a certification of expertise in the provisions and implementation of health reform. It does not meet state or federal requirements that may be necessary or required to sell exchange-based plans.

Who should take this course: Licensed Life/Health Agents, Consultants and Brokers

CE Requested in all 50 states: 8 hours

Reading Material - Textbook (5 hours)

Viewing Material - Video Run Time: (3 hours)

Study Method: On-line self-study

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

This course covers advanced topics related to group benefits, including ERISA, Medicaid, and Social Security. NAHU has created a course to educate professionals about advanced group benefits topics.

ERISA is a major federal legislation which widely affects the employee benefits marketplace. It defines an employee welfare benefit plan and the communication and transparency requirements that must be met in order to be compliant with the law. It also defined a fiduciary and established the fiduciary’s role in an ERISA plan. ERISA also established rules around plan discrimination, benefit plan claims procedures, required plan reporting, and the appropriate handling of plan assets.

Medicaid is a federal and state government program that pays for medical assistance for certain individuals and families with low incomes and resources. Medicaid enrollment has grown significantly due to the Affordable Care Act’s guidelines. Medicaid is a highly visible alternative to medical care that is available through the state health insurance exchanges.

In addition to covering the topics on Medicaid and ERISA, this course will explore Underwriting and the processes of evaluating an insurance applicant, making decisions about the applicant’s acceptability for insurance coverage, and determining the appropriate basis on which to determine the price for the coverage. The agent or broker needs to understand the pricing and underwriting process, as this is the process which determines the competitive status of his/her proposal for the client.

This program will survey Social Insurance programs, including Social Security, that are important in the employee benefits marketplace. Social benefits account for nearly one quarter of the dollars that employers spend on benefits for their employees. For some employees, the social insurance benefits serve as the foundation for the employee’s benefit program; for other employees, the social insurance benefits may be the only benefits they have.

Learning Objectives:

Understanding the types of welfare benefit plans that are subject to ERISA and the parties involved

Who should take this course: Licensed Life/Health Agents, Consultants and Brokers

CE Requested in all 50 states: 18 hours

Reading Material - Text book(5 hours)

Viewing Material - Video Run Time (3 hours)18 hours

Study Method: On-line self study

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

Employee benefits are a major part of the overall compensation for employees in the marketplace. The significance of the term “employee benefits” has increased in recent years. Whether you use a narrow definition of employee benefits or a broad definition of employee benefits, employee benefits are an important “expectation” for employees to receive when working for an employer and for employers to provide to their employees.

To address this important factor in health insurance sales, NAHU has created a course to educate professionals through an introduction to the basic concepts of group benefits and their role in today’s health insurance marketplace.

Learning Objectives

An understanding of the material in this chapter will enable the student to

Identify the categories of benefits that can be included in a broad definition of employee benefits, and explain their significance.

Understand the benefit structure and planning process.

Understand the characteristics of Voluntary Benefits and when they come into play.

Understand how the benefit schedules under group term life insurance plans might be determined.

Describe the eligibility requirements and other contract provisions usually found in group term life insurance plans.

Understand the tax implications of group term insurance to both employers and employees.

Understand group variable life insurance options.

Describe the characteristics of insured disability income plans and their tax implications of group disability income premiums and benefits for the employer and the employees.

Obtain working knowledge of the providers of traditional medical expense insurance plans and exclusions.

Understand the role of provider networks and utilization management in managed care plans.

Who should take this course: Licensed Health/Life Agents, Consultants and Brokers

Study Method: On-line Self Study

CE Requested in all 50 states: 3 hours

Reading Material - Textbook (2 hours)

Online video run time: (3 hours)

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

Ethics both individually and throughout society set the benchmark for behavior that is morally right and good. Ethics also encompasses the mission, values, and principles of a profession. A Code of Ethics is used to measure individual and organizational performance against an established benchmark.

Video Run TimeTo address this important factor in health insurance sales, NAHU has created this course to educate professionals about ethical behavior and the inherent expectations for ethical behavior in their roles in their relationships with their clients and business resources. This course also includes a discussion of the potential ethical concerns created by the Affordable Care Act and the world of advancing technologies. Additionally, this course will satisfy most state requirements.

Learning Objectives:

The definition of ethics

The factors that influence ethical behavior

The three different types of rights and how each is justified and enforced

The difference between moral obligations and role-specific moral obligations

The characteristics of a profession

The role-specific obligations of managed care organizations, medical care providers, insurance professionals, and insureds as both clients and patients

To address this evolving opportunity, NAHU has created a new three-hour Voluntary/Worksite Certification course. Completion of this course will ensure a strong technical knowledge of the rules and regulations pertaining to various types of voluntary/worksite products and proven methods for communicating those options to employers and employees in a compelling way.

Who should take this course: Licensed Life/Health Agents, Consultants and Brokers

Study Method: On-line self-study

CE Requested in all 50 states: 12 hours in all states

Reading Material -Textbook : (8 hours)

Viewing Material - Video Run Time: (4 hours)

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

Health insurance protects financial security as a person anticipates and moves through life’s various stages. Adequate health insurance helps to build and maintain financial security by shielding a person from financial setbacks that could compromise that security should ill health or injury occur at any stage in life. Employer funding of health insurance has declined significantly over the past 30 years which places more responsibility on the individual to provide his or her own financial protection.

Agents and Brokers ensure their clients to have products of value that provide peace of mind and protect against significant losses. The client becomes the policy owner and the insurer backs the promises in the contract. Underwriting is an essential function in all forms of insurance. It is the process of evaluating an insurance applicant, making decisions about the applicant’s acceptability for insurance coverage, and determining the appropriate basis on which to provide coverage and charge a premium.

NAHU created this course for professionals to better assist their clients in working towards an immediate goal of becoming protected against insurer insolvency and unfair treatment by insurers. Health insurance is arguable the most heavily regulated type of insurance; it protects almost irreplaceable personal values that are directly related to health and well-being, earning a living, and the conduct of life’s basic activities. Purchasing individual health insurance is a process that relies on a number of fundamental components such as insurability of health-related expenses, sources for individual health insurance, and the market for individual health insurance. This course will educate you on the Affordable Care Act, the purchasing process for individual medical expense coverage differences and comparisons from the purchasing process for individual disability and long term care.

The four-hour course provides technical, actionable information that can be used to help clients consider fast-evolving plans and implement them. NAHU provides top-notch instructors who are leading experts in the industry.

Did you know that "controllable behaviors" -- overeating, smoking and physical inactivity -- account for nearly 25 percent of all U.S. health care spending? Imagine if your employer clients could reduce these costs from their total benefit spending. To address controllable behaviors, many companies are adopting wellness programs. But are such programs effective, and do they offer a return on investment?

Employee Benefits professionals are asked questions like these every day. The ability to not only answer the questions but provide timely, effective advice is essential. For this reason, NAHU is sponsoring a new Wellness Certification course that addresses these issues in a comprehensive overview that draws upon dozens of sources. Approved for two hours of continuing education for insurance in 48 states the course addresses:

Developed by experts in the market space, this three-hour course instruction will ensure that students understand the key technical components of self-funding and are better prepared to counsel their clients on the various benefits of elimination of most premium tax, lowering cost of administration, claims/administration and customer service for employees.

Historically, employers have turned to the self-funding of their health plans when traditional insurance programs failed to meet their cost expectations. The many thousands of employers in the U.S. who have implemented self-insured medical programs later discovered the other advantages such as coverage flexibility and client-specific benefit plan administration. Self-funding is one of the most effective ways employers can control the rising costs of healthcare coverage. In understanding self-funding as a concept and how it differs from fully insured products, this course instructed by David Smith who will help provide in detail how it all works and proven methods for communicating this option to employers and employees in a compelling way

Targeted Audience: life and health agents with experience in the industry

Course Overview/Objective: What follows in this course is an intermediate introduction with a retrospective of the Medicare program’s long and varied history since its introduction in 1965, aimed at helping you better understand the complexities of the senior health market and the details of the various Medicare-related products that are now available. There will be discussion covering origins and original intent of Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, and go on to chronicle some of the major legislation and recent changes that has shaped the products we sell today. The discussion then turns to the current market as well as what the system could look like in the future, and closes with an explanation of how agents can best serve their client navigation through the Medicare maze.

This certification course has been designed to provide the next level of self-funding training and education for NAHU members, to best prepare them to meet the challenges and needs of their clients and prospects.

Self-funding of group health insurance has increasingly become a very attractive option for many employers, but the very complex nature of these plans can lead to many serious mistakes for agents, brokers and consultants. While the NAHU Self-Funding Certification Course provides a basic level of knowledge about self-funding, this class is specifically directed at the next level – a 200-level course on this very important topic to growing agencies and firms.

This course is broken into four components:

Regulatory Issues that impact group health plans, including ERISA, fiduciary duty, preemption and state stop-loss laws, and Taft-Hartley.

Best Practices for Plan Administration, with an in-depth discussion about issues related to setting up group health plans, finding administrators, plan design, stop-loss and risk financing, dependent eligibility audits and monitoring claims administration.

Importance of High-Quality Consulting: reviewing the kinds of work that specialists would want to provide to their clients and to be prepared for as potential professional liability claims. Topics include preparing your client, mergers & acquisitions, protecting from abuse by vendors performing certain responsibilities for self-funded health plans, claims monitoring and reporting.

Next Generation in Self-Funding: a discussion of new ideas in terms of plan design, operation and risk transfer that are becoming available in the market.